Table of Contents: June 2014

Mitochondrial DNA analyses of 15 Neolithic human skeletons from the Fertile Crescent suggest that the first expansions that brought the Neolithic into Europe took place by seafaring through Cyprus and Crete.

The image shows the skeleton of a child recovered from house 4H of the Middle Euphrates Pre-pottery Neolithic site Tell Halula (7500-7300 cal BC). Skeletons were found in a seated, flexed position inside sealed pits that were excavated in the floor of the houses. These conditions might have contributed to the preservation of DNA. See Fernández et al.

Image Credit: Miquel Molist, SAPPO/UAB (Seminar on the Near East Prehistoric Archaeology/Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona)